Albion applying for grant to help it absorb dissolving Altmar

Altmar, NY -- The process to dissolve Altmar took one more step Tuesday night when the Albion town board decided to apply for a $50,000 grant to help put the village’s dissolution plan into place.

The application for the grant must be in to the state Department of State by Wednesday. The money would be used for professional costs, such as paying lawyers, to turn all village assets, laws, streets, lighting district and cemetery over to the town.

Altmar residents voted in November 2010 to abolish the village government. They voted again in December to accept the dissolution plan drawn up by a Rochester firm.

The town would have to come up with a $5,000 local match to receive the grant.

The biggest bone of contention brought up Tuesday night was deteriorating sidewalks and roads in the village. Town Highway Superintendent Steven Cronk wants to know if the village is going to fix these problems before it dissolves into the town.

And he wants to know what the village can do with its CHIPS (Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program) money from the state.

“We’re going to be hurting. A lot of these roads need help,” Cronk said.

“I’ve asked them how much money they have in CHIPS and if they’re not using it and I never got a good answer,” said Town Supervisor Carl Anson Jr.

Town Councilman Thomas Reff, who was a village trustee before his election to the town board last year, said “there’s gotta be $40,000 in” the village’s CHIPS fund.

Cronk said he wants the village to use that money to fix streets and sidewalks. Or, if the village doesn’t use it, he would like it to be turned over to the town highway department for use in fixing the village streets and sidewalks.

This isn’t the first time talk of Altmar’s sidewalks and streets has come up concerning the village’s dissolution. During a village board meeting last July, Anson asked about these same issues.

At that time, Reff, who was a trustee then and running that meeting, said the village board would have to discuss what the village would repair before the village is abolished in June 2013.